Last of the Amazons
A Novel
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4.0 • 25 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
An “inventive [and] epic” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) novel of the ancient world that breathes life into the grand myth of the ferocious female warrior culture of the Amazons, from the bestselling author of Gates of Fire
“Thoroughly gripping [with] the best battle scenes I’ve ever read.”—Diana Gabaldon
In the time before Homer, the legendary Theseus, king of Athens, set sail on a journey that brought him into the land of tal Kyrte, the nation of proud female warriors whom the Greeks called Amazons. The Amazons, bound to each other as lovers as well as fighters, distrusted the Greeks, with their boastful talk of “civilization.” So when the great war queen Antiope fell in love with Theseus and fled with the Greeks, the mighty Amazon nation rose up in rage.
In the eternal clash between freedom and civilization, love and loyalty, man and woman, lies a masterful tale of war and revenge with the power to enchant, seduce, and inspire.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Writing about ancient Greece with rich historical detail, passion and drama, Pressfield has previously dramatized the battle of Thermopylae (Gates of Fire) and the Peloponnesian War (Tides of War). Here, he steps further back in time, to 1250 B.C., when the civilized Greek city-state of Athens confronts the barbaric empire of the Amazons in a titanic struggle for survival. The novel does not pack the emotional punch of Pressfield's other Greek fiction, but it still rings with the clamor and horror of close combat, sword on shield, battle-ax on helmet and javelins thudding into armor. The Amazon kingdom, peopled and ruled by a ferocious society of female warriors, occupies land near the Black Sea. The Amazon war queen, Antiope, leads an army of female warriors feared for their savage cruelty and hatred of the Greeks. When Theseus, the Greek king of Athens, journeys into Amazon territory, he and Antiope spar verbally, but fall in love, creating a dilemma for both. Antiope forswears her allegiance to the Amazon life and flees with Theseus back to Athens to become his wife. Antiope's successor, her Amazon lover, Eleuthera, vows to wipe out Athens to erase the shame and treachery of Antiope and Theseus's marriage. She leads a mighty invasion of Greece, culminating in a long siege and a climactic battle before Athens's great walls. Amid the carnage, gore and violence, Pressfield presents a love story so grand it pits nations against one another. Pressfield's javelin is his pen and he wields it well in this gruesome tale of ancient blood lust in an age when there is no word for mercy.
Customer Reviews
So disappointing
Gates of Fire is one of my all time favorite books. Last of the Amazons is on the opposite end of that spectrum. Absolute garbage that Pressfield should actually be prosecuted for.